Difference Between a Python and a Boa

[Kaorte]

I apologize for me going off on you a bit. I simply felt your reply was a bit sarcastic, and belittling when I was trying to just go a bit above and beyond, and learn something about snakes I'm not even required to know. So the sarcasm toward what I felt was a somewhat humbling, simple question, kind of felt like a kick bellow the belt. It just came across to me as "You lazy idiot, why are you wasting our time with this?"

This actually comes at an ironic time as I am sitting in a class titled "social communication" where we are discussing metamesseges in text messaging on the internet.

Since I don't have my voice or my facial expressions on the internet, I cannot accurately describe my intent, and neither can you.

[EsotericForest]

That is pretty ironic, and quite true. Again, I apologize over the conflict

[Kaorte]

That is pretty ironic, and quite true. Again, I apologize over the conflict

no hard feelings. It is the internet after all

[EsotericForest]

Also, thank you for those who replied to my question...even though the exceptions to the rule kind of mess up the main reason for the classification in my mind.

[Skiploder]

Differences between boas and pythons include:

(1) With one exception, boas do not have a supra-orbital bone. All pythons have this bone.

(2) Not all boas have labial pits and if they do, they are located between the labial scales. Pythons, on the other hand, have theirs centered on the labial scales.

(3) The premaxilla (an area of the jaw) of boas are without teeth, while the premaxilla of most pythons are toothed.

As for laying eggs, remember, some of the sand boas are oviparous - the muelleri (West African Sand boa) and the jayakari (Arabian Sand Boa). Granted these eggs are laid very late in the developmental stage, they are laid nonetheless..........and there are other egg laying boas (Xenophidion).

With regards to geographical disbursement: Candoia are boas and do not live in the Americas............Indonesia, Fiji, New Guinea, Solomon Islands - also home to various python species.

Likewise, there is a new world python.

Directing someone to a Google search is fine and dandy - if the information in the google search is accurate - which it often isn't.

[vangarret2000]

The difference is pythons are awesome and boas are just so-so.

[j_h_smith]

Remember when you could go to a dictionary and get a clear and concise definition. Well, Webster definitely fell short on these two definitions.

Python=Any of various large constricting snakes (as a boa); especially : any of the large oviparous snakes (subfamily Pythoninae of the family Boidae) of Africa, Asia, Australia, and adjacent islands that include some of the largest existing snakes.

Boa=Any of a family (Boidae) of large snakes that kill by constriction and that includes the boa constrictor, anaconda, and python.